Hadrian Ball, who was once singled out as a potential leader of the NHS, will stand down from his director role at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust in the summer, it has been announced.

Dr Ball, who joined the mental health trust as a forensic consultant psychiatrist in 1992, will act as a medical consultant to the trust before taking retirement in January 2015.

The doctor has helped oversee the radical redesign of services, which includes plans to reduce mental health bed numbers by 20pc.

He said: “I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the trust for the experience and opportunities that it afforded me when I was appointed as medical director 14 years ago. As a consequence, I have a range and depth of management experience that few NHS medical managers can equal.”

“The trust has gone through a challenging period during the past 18 months while it implemented organisation changes. However, as a result of these and the appointment of Michael Scott as chief executive, I believe when I leave next year, the trust will be in a strong position to instigate the major developments the NHS faces in the coming years.”

In 2007, Dr Ball was presented with a prestigious Leadership Fellow award, by the Health Foundation and was described as having the potential to make major improvements to the quality of patient care in the UK.

Andrew Hopkins, acting chief executive of NSFT, said: “During his time, Hadrian has witnessed a huge amount of change and development in the services we provide, the structure of the trust and the NHS. He has played an integral role in service development and in steadily increasing our research profile over the past few years. He has been very loyal to the trust and we will miss his thoughtful contribution, level-headedness and sense of humour. He will be much missed and we wish him a happy retirement.”